Blockade of the Plužine-Sarajevo road on Monday: They want both Podgorica and Sarajevo to hear their dissatisfaction

Residents of border villages in Piva, as well as other residents of the Plužine municipality, will block the Plužine-Sarajevo road on Monday, June 9, from 13 to 15 p.m., near the gas station, as a warning that, if their demands are not positively resolved, they will continue to block the aforementioned road after the tourist season.

They demand that residents of the municipalities of Plužine and Gacko be allowed to cross the border with personal documents via the Ravno crossing in Piva, and that tourists be able to use this crossing as a border crossing during the summer season. As they said, the "opening" of the aforementioned border crossing would contribute to the development of tourism on both sides and would make life easier for residents of the border municipalities.

In recent weeks, as they stated, the border police of Bosnia and Herzegovina have increased control in that area and some residents of Piva and Gacko, as well as tourists, have already been fined. They point out that the road via Ravno is by far the closest to the Durmitor region, and that Plužine via Ravno is 130 kilometers away from Dubrovnik and 120 km from Mostar. There are passes for residents of border areas to facilitate the crossing, but, as they claim, only a small number of them can obtain them.

They emphasized that the blockade "is not directed against anyone" but that they just want their voice and dissatisfaction to be heard by both Podgorica and Sarajevo.

The President of the Municipality of Plužine, Slobodan Delić, said yesterday that citizens have been trying to get in touch with the competent institutions for years, through local administrations in Plužine and Gacko.

"They are asking for the border crossing to be put into operation in such a way that the crossing over that administrative border line will be accompanied by regular control of the line. Unfortunately, so far we have not received a positive answer as to whether a border crossing can be set up there," said Delić.

He reminded that a large number of locals from both municipalities are tied to Plužine and Gacko, both through their properties and family ties.

"It seems to me that people are justifiably expressing their rebellion. I believe that the competent institutions will be more likely to hear the needs of citizens and the appeals of local governments in this way. All that we have done so far has encountered a wall of silence and the inability to solve the problem. We hope, and we are optimistic, that after the attitude of the citizens, this problem will reach those who need it. That they will see that it is truly a need, even in the summer season, for the crossing to be functional," said the President of the Municipality of Plužine.

On the same day, at 15 p.m., their neighbors on the other side of the border will gather at the intersection in Avtovac to express their dissatisfaction with the aforementioned problem. Residents of border villages in the Gacko municipality said that they are connected to the residents of Piva by "kinship, godfathership, and brotherhood," that a large number of residents in those areas have land on both sides of the border, and that the road across Ravno, which connects the aforementioned municipalities, is 35 kilometers long, while they have to travel 100 kilometers on a side road.